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The Invention of Memory: An Irish family scrapbook 1560-1934
From the arrival of his first ancestor in Dublin in 1560, Simon Loftus traces the fascinating story of his family's heritage in Ireland - piecing together fragments of legend and biography that span over 350 years of Irish history.
The background is the colonial conquest of Ireland and the clash of religious and national identity, but the focus is close at hand, familial. The passions and eccentricities, the daily concerns and relationships, the rich dramas and anecdotes of individuals in this Ascendancy family - over eight generations - combine to form an enthralling memoir of shifting viewpoints and entertainingly inconsistent accounts of a shared past.
The Invention of Memory is a profound family portrait and a sweeping history that examines the nature of recollection and how our memories are shaped by experience and time.
'Spell-binding, full of treasures and often extremely moving.' -
Selina Hastings
'A series of beautifully rendered evocations of landscape, people, attitudes, emblems and events. It treats the sweep of a melancholy history with the utmost poise and discernment.' -
Irish Times
'A wonderful excursion through history, illuminating more famous events of Anglo-Irish history through the delicious, inconsequential details of Simon Loftus's family.' -
Matthew Fort
'A powerfully evocative mixture of biography and legend, peppered with heart-warming and heart-wrenching anecdotes.' -
Financial Times
'Apart from the sheer enjoyment of Loftus's exhumations, his thoughts on the multiple uses of 'the memory of a past that never was' deserve to be pondered.' -
Times Literary Supplement
The background is the colonial conquest of Ireland and the clash of religious and national identity, but the focus is close at hand, familial. The passions and eccentricities, the daily concerns and relationships, the rich dramas and anecdotes of individuals in this Ascendancy family - over eight generations - combine to form an enthralling memoir of shifting viewpoints and entertainingly inconsistent accounts of a shared past.
The Invention of Memory is a profound family portrait and a sweeping history that examines the nature of recollection and how our memories are shaped by experience and time.
'Spell-binding, full of treasures and often extremely moving.' -
Selina Hastings
'A series of beautifully rendered evocations of landscape, people, attitudes, emblems and events. It treats the sweep of a melancholy history with the utmost poise and discernment.' -
Irish Times
'A wonderful excursion through history, illuminating more famous events of Anglo-Irish history through the delicious, inconsequential details of Simon Loftus's family.' -
Matthew Fort
'A powerfully evocative mixture of biography and legend, peppered with heart-warming and heart-wrenching anecdotes.' -
Financial Times
'Apart from the sheer enjoyment of Loftus's exhumations, his thoughts on the multiple uses of 'the memory of a past that never was' deserve to be pondered.' -
Times Literary Supplement
782 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 25, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 2, 2024
[22 May 2015] An absolutely wonderful, gripping and totally absorbing book - written with such an easy style that it is like having a private conversation with Simon himself. He tells the tale of his family history - of adventurers who get themselves granted land in Ireland at the beginning of the English obsession with moving into other people's land and displacing indigenous people. He describes the absolutely breath-taking cruelty and distaind for anybody who wasn't English and how as a consequence thousands of people were savagely oppressed and killed in large numbers. If you ever wondered what the Northern Ireland 'conflict' was about - you must read this book. It is illuminating and tells the grizzly tale, in a mostly non-judgemental manner, through the eyes of a family doing what they thought they should.
The chapters are relatively short and are packed with interesting and bizarre stories about successive generations of the family. Ultimately the family reach dizzy heights in the Kingdom and exhibit an atypical degree of paternalistic care to the Irish and achieve some benevolent responses, but ultimately they suffer from role reversal and loss when the Irish assert themselves and take charge of their country. The savagery of the struggle for a voice and the absolute stupidity of English colonial responses disconnects Ireland from the rest of the British Isles and creates a generation of terrorists. (Please don't misunderstand me I am not excusing terrorists. There is no excuse at all for violence or murder). Simon Lofus recounts the unpalatable truth - extracted from numerous family documents and wide ranging, painstaking research and weaves a story with consummate skill and remarkable ability,
A wonderful family history and an insight into the disaster of English colonial policy - I loved it and subconsciously slowed down my reading as I got near to the end as I did not want to leave the story behind and when I did it was sad. What greater tribute to an author?
The chapters are relatively short and are packed with interesting and bizarre stories about successive generations of the family. Ultimately the family reach dizzy heights in the Kingdom and exhibit an atypical degree of paternalistic care to the Irish and achieve some benevolent responses, but ultimately they suffer from role reversal and loss when the Irish assert themselves and take charge of their country. The savagery of the struggle for a voice and the absolute stupidity of English colonial responses disconnects Ireland from the rest of the British Isles and creates a generation of terrorists. (Please don't misunderstand me I am not excusing terrorists. There is no excuse at all for violence or murder). Simon Lofus recounts the unpalatable truth - extracted from numerous family documents and wide ranging, painstaking research and weaves a story with consummate skill and remarkable ability,
A wonderful family history and an insight into the disaster of English colonial policy - I loved it and subconsciously slowed down my reading as I got near to the end as I did not want to leave the story behind and when I did it was sad. What greater tribute to an author?
December 31, 2017
Beautifully told story of a notable Irish family
Very well written and researched, this book describes the emergence of Adam Loftus, one of the most formidable and powerful people from the late 16th and early 17th century Irish Society.
The book then tracks ups and downs of this family over the following two centuries.
The detail and well crafted descriptions of life for this family give you an insight similar to Samuel Pepys diary. A superb read for anyone interested in the history of Ireland and one of its great families.
Very well written and researched, this book describes the emergence of Adam Loftus, one of the most formidable and powerful people from the late 16th and early 17th century Irish Society.
The book then tracks ups and downs of this family over the following two centuries.
The detail and well crafted descriptions of life for this family give you an insight similar to Samuel Pepys diary. A superb read for anyone interested in the history of Ireland and one of its great families.
March 6, 2019
Very interesting insight into one of the movers in 17th century Ireland. Helped me to understand how things happen as "man knows man" (a Nigerian proverb). People living in the then small city of Dublin were constantly rubbing shoulders with one another. This made a difference to what they did, said, and thought. Also really interesting to see how the family fared through later generations.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews